Crafting

Description

Crafting is the process of making an item from its constituent parts. It is an integral aspect of 7 Days to Die that is accomplished via the Crafting Menu. Almost all items and blocks found in-game can be crafted with a few exceptions. By utilizing crafting, the player can obtain access to items to aid in their survival without relying on their luck of finding items through looting. Crafting can be done in the player's inventory and in any of the workstations: a Campfire, a Forge, a Workbench, a Cement Mixer and a Chemistry Station. Most of these workstations have their own unique recipes that can only be crafted in the respective workstation.

Components used for crafting are obtained via looting, farming, mining, or harvesting. Some components need to be crafted from other base components. Once the player has obtained all the necessary components, found an appropriate crafting station and any possible crafting appliances needed and/or learned the required skill or recipe if needed, they can proceed to craft the item.

Crafting an item

To craft an item, the player must select the specific item in their crafting menu and already have the needed resources used to craft the specific item in the inventory to finally click the button "craft". Optionally, the player can select how many items should be crafted by clicking the left and right arrows located at the top left on the right panel. This amount can also be changed simply by entering a number in the input panel located between the two arrows. Clicking on the item from the crafting menu while holding 'Shift' will automatically set the crafting amount to the max that can be made from the resources in the player's inventory.

Issues at crafting

If an item cannot be crafted (colored in light grey or craft button missing completely), it is because of one or more of the following reasons:

• The player has insufficient resources in their inventory or in the forge. This is accompanied with a message "You don't have the necessary resources to craft this" when pressing the craft button.
• The player does not know the crafting recipe. In this case there is either no craft button at all or it is replaced by a perk button. On the recipe list, next to the item, a grey lock can also be seen, indicating that the recipe is locked.
• The player is using the wrong workstation (if any at all). In this case the icon next to the name is something other than a padlock and there is no craft button. The said icon indicates the correct one: a hammer and an anvil means the forge, a table means the workbench, a campfire means a campfire and a cement mixer means a cement mixer.
• The workstation (a campfire, a forge or a chemistry station) doesn't have fuel. This is accompanied by a message "You don't have the required fuel to craft this" when pressing the craft button.
• The workstation (a forge or a campfire) doesn't have correct appliances. This is accompanied by a message "You don't have the required tools to craft this" when pressing the craft button.

Workstations

As mentioned previously, there are five different workstations:

• Campfire is the first workstations the player uses and it is crafted as a part of the starting quest. It is mainly used to cook food and beverages but some chemicals are also available for crafting. The campfire can have three appliances in it: a Cooking Pot, a Cooking Grill and a Beaker. It requires fuel to function.
• Forge is usually the second workstation the player gets an access to. It is used to multiple useful craft items, most notably Cement, Forged Iron, Forged Steel, Bullet Casings, Bullet Tips and both Steel and Iron Arrowheads. The forge has its own inventory where the crafting materials are taken from. Resources can be put into this inventory by smelting certain items and removed by crafting any of the basic resources in the forge. This workstation can have three appliances in it: an Anvil, Advanced Bellows and a Crucible. The forge requires fuel to function.
• Workbench differs from the other workstations by a bit. While many recipes require it to be crafted, the workbench can also be used to craft the same items that are craftable in the player's inventory. This can be helpful when crafting large amounts of resources, such as Cobblestone Rocks. The workbench doesn't have any appliances nor does it require any fuel.
• Cement Mixer is a workstation that is mostly used to craft either blocks or ingredients to those blocks. The most notable resources are Concrete Mix that is used in Upgrading blocks and Crushed Sand that is used to craft concrete mix. This workstation doesn't have any appliances nor does it require any fuel.
• Chemistry Station is used to craft many scientific items, such as chemicals and medicine. Most notable items include First Aid Kits, Gas Cans, Antibiotics and Beer. Bundles for Gun Powder and gas cans are also crafted through the chemistry station. This workstation doesn't have any appliances but requires fuel to function.

Getting a workstation

Workstations can be found across the world in several Points of Interest. Most of these workstations are broken but finding a working one isn't impossible. Settling near a working workstation, especially a forge or a cement mixer, can speed up the player's progression significantly. Every Trader in the world has one instance of each workstation, broken or working, inside their walls. Workstations can also be crafted, looted and bought from a trader if one gets lucky. Advanced Engineering unlocks the recipe for the forge, cement mixer and workbench whereas the Physician unlocks the crafting of a Chemistry Station. Schematics for each workstations can also be found while looting containers but relying on this can slow progression if no suitable schematic is found.

More effective crafting

Certain skills/perks allow more efficient and/or faster crafting for certain items.

• Demolitions Expert unlocks the Gun Powder Bundle recipe.
• Living Off The Land reduces the crafting cost of Farm Plots.
• Master Chef reduces the cost of the main ingredient used in recipes.
• Advanced Engineering reduces resource costs and speeds up crafting of most recipes crafted in a Cement Mixer, a Forge and a Workbench.
• Grease Monkey reduces the crafting cost of vehicle parts and unlocks the Gas Can Bundle recipe.
• Physician speeds up crafting in the Chemistry Station.
• Reading all 7 of the Perk Books of Magnum Enforcer, Pistol Pete, Shotgun Messiah, Sniper, Tech Junkie and Ranger's Guide to Archery series allows the player to craft ammunition in bundles of 100 with a 20% reduced crafting cost (i.e. the cost of 80). Crafting these bundles is, however, slower than crafting individual ammunition for stone arrows, stone crossbow bolts, iron arrows and iron crossbow bolts. For other ammunition types the bundles are faster.
• Completing the Great Heist series unlocks a recipe for a bundle of Lockpicks.
• Nerdy Glasses reduce the crafting time by 10% for all recipes. This stacks additively with perks.

Craftable items

Due to the number of craftable items and server limitations, the comprehensive table had to be split:

• Craftable Ammo
• Craftable Building Materials
• Craftable Food
• Craftable Furniture
• Craftable Clothing
• Craftable Medicine
• Craftable Resources
• Craftable Tools/Traps
• Craftable Weapons